Chances are that every day you will pick something up and move it from one place to another – for some people it might be something as simple and as stress free as a TV remote or a coffee mug, but for others a large part of their working life involves moving objects of various shapes and weights from one place to another.
If you are one of these people that have to deal with heavy or unusual objects as a part of your job then you will no doubt be aware that every time you lift a heavy item you are risking injury to some very important parts of your body.
The most common injuries involved in lifting accidents are injuries to the back but that doesn’t meant that other parts of the body cannot be affected and injuries to hands, the arms, your neck and your torso could all be related to the heavy objects that you have to lift at work. You can easily stretch or tear any number of muscles or ligaments and tendons when moving something.
Normally injuries caused by lifting heavy items can be reduced or avoided with manual handling training and it is your employers’ responsibility to provide you with this. In fact your employer has a number of responsibilities in this area and they should have systems in place that allow you avoid unnecessary lifting and reduce the amount of overall lifting that you do have to do.
One way in which your employer might do this is by providing lifting aids such as pulleys, trolleys or winches that reduce the amount of lifting that you have to do; you should also be thoroughly trained in how to use these.
It is important that if you are trained in manual handling and the use of lifting aids that you conform to this training wherever possible as not doing so may have an adverse affect on your compensation claim. However, you also have responsibilities to keep yourself safe from harm and not only should you use your training whenever you lift an object but you should co-operate with your employer to identify the potential hazards and seek assistance if you feel you need it.
If your employer has not given you training or they have failed to minimise the risks to your health through their working practices or by not making the appropriate lifting aids available and you have been injured as a result then you should seek expert and professional personal injury law advice.
This is where The Injury Lawyers come in; we are specialists in personal injury law and offer you free advice as to whether you have a claim. So don’t hesitate and be in the dark about your rights to compensation, call us today for professional, no obligation advice.
